


With and Without

by YumeArashi



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Canon, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-22
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-26 10:50:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeArashi/pseuds/YumeArashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonardo had always known that he might lose Ezio at any time, and yet knowing does nothing to prepare him for the reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With and Without

**Author's Note:**

> Set during Assassin's Creed II.

Leonardo could only conclude that grief was driving him mad, and that he was not entirely sure that he cared.

Four weeks ago, Ezio had stumbled into his workshop, more gravely wounded than the artist had ever seen him.  Despite Leonardo’s best care, despite overriding Ezio’s wishes and bringing doctor after doctor, there was nothing that could be done.  The assassin had slipped quietly away, cradled in Leonardo’s arms, his last words of love for his oldest friend.

Since then, Leonardo had felt every minute as though he were not alone.  Long after any visitors had gone home, he fancied he felt the weight of eyes on him, watching him pace restlessly around the workshop.  It should have been a disconcerting feeling, and yet he felt oddly comforted instead.

Sometimes, if he had been up very late, he could swear he felt a soft touch to his cheek, the warm weight of a hand against his shoulder.  He could practically hear his lover’s voice, murmuring his name tenderly.

It could only be madness, of course.  Ezio was gone, and there was no power on earth that could bring him back.  And yet, Leonardo thought to himself that he would rather be mad, and take what comfort he could in such delusions.

Let his assistants spread rumors.  Let his patrons look askance.  Death did not stop him from needing Ezio.  However blind it was of him, he simply could not accept that Ezio would never again be a part of his life.

He had thought himself prepared for that eventuality.  He had always known how risky Ezio’s calling was.  He had always known that there might come a day when the younger man would not return to him.  The possibility had troubled him every moment his lover was away from his side.

And yet, when it had happened, he had been utterly devastated.  He had stopped eating, stopped sleeping, stopped working.  All the joy he had once taken in the world around him was lost. 

His friends were worried, he knew.  Rosa, Antonio, Teodora - all had stopped by frequently to keep him company and try to coax him into eating or resting peacefully.  Dimly, he felt bad that he could not do as they asked.

Sitting down at his workbench, he took out Ezio’s bracer.  It had become a nightly ritual to disassemble it, clean it fastidiously, and reassemble it.  Unnecessary, of course, now that it was not in use, but the weapon was all he had left of Ezio.  The bright blade flickered in and out of the hidden sheath, sharp enough to cut a summer’s breeze.  Leonardo watched it with morbid fascination.  Such a fine weapon,  the best he could have ever built, and yet it had not kept Ezio safe.

A soft touch, as of barely-there fingers combing through his hair, made him turn his head.  There was nothing there, of course - there never was.  He had not expected anything else, and yet the sight of the empty workshop, reaffirming how alone he was, made him close his eyes in pain.

.

.

.

Beside him on the bench, the echo of what had been a man named Ezio Auditore tried in vain to brush away his lover’s tears, and hated himself for being unable to do more.


End file.
